Farming Time to Take Stock by A. E. Gibson Before the seasonal rush of work again starts on the farm it is an excellent time to take stock of the objects you know should be done but somehow you just do not get time to do. It is only a few weeks before the cows start calving or the ewes lambing and then it is a continuous rush of stock and seasonal work until after Christmas. Have the milking machines been overhauled? What about the shed rubber ware? Those troughs that get like an island in a sea of mud—can you shift them or get a load of boulders? You probably need a few loads of metal on the farm tracks and some water troughs might need cleaning or the culverts opened up. It is a good time to overhaul the tractor if you can do without it for feeding out. What about the mower—did you put it away with a broken pitman or a couple of broken fingers? The water supply pump might need an overhaul and it is a good time to put a trough in that paddock that has got no water. What about getting the shearing plant overhauled instead of trying to get a man the day before the crutchers arrive. Check up on the first aid kit in the cow shed and stock up your requirements for lambing and docking. Like all successful businesses, farming has got to be planned. You will have estimated your approximate income and expenditure for the coming season. With ever rising costs and the possibility of a reduction in the return from your butterfat or meat, the necessity to get that extra few hundred pounds of butterfat or meat will be obvious to you. Remember that the surest way to get more production is to apply the correct amount of the right fertiliser. Whether it be straight superphosphate, molyledic super, potassic super, or even potash that is required will depend on the soil type you are farming and its level of fertility. Your Department of Agriculture Fields Instructor is probably the best man to seek for advice and his services are free. Under no circumstances should you reduce your manure to make the budget balance. This is the last item you should cut or reduce.

Insecticides If you are in an area where grass grub, porina, army worm, or crickets damage your pasture, your best method of prevention or treatment is with insecticides, but remember that it is illegal to apply them without the consent of the Director-General of Agriculture. The one exception to this rule is that you may apply D.D.T. super providing that: (1) All stock are removed from the pasture. (2) Sheep and beef cattle are not grazed on it earlier than 4 weeks after application and dairy cows earlier than 6 weeks. (3) You do not apply it to more than ⅓ of the farm. (4) The pasture is grazed down to 1 inch in height for sheep farms or 3 inches where it is to be grazed by cattle. (5) You do not apply it at a rate exceeding that which is specified in the directions for use. While talking of regulations, you will note that recently regulations Gazetted made it an offence to supply to a factory, milk or cream from a cow until at least 6 milkings after treatment with antibiotics. If you use penicillin to treat a cow, use the milk from the next 6 milkings after the final treatment, for the calves or pigs. Do not allow that milk to go through the pipe line. With the cows coming in it is a good opportunity to check up on your milking technique. Mr Petersen discussed this subject fairly fully in the last newsletter. Extensive trials carried out at Ruakura have shown that good milking technique can increase production by as much as 32% in a herd. In other words you could increase your production from say 12,000 lbs butterfat to nearly 16,000 lbs butterfat by carrying out the methods he described to you. In money this represents an increase of nearly £500 in a season and it does not increase your costs by one penny.